This is my first Rizzoli & Isles fic. I do not own anything, except my own mistakes. And Theo.
It's almost midnight when she gets the call. She's just finished a case and she's ready to fall into her bed and not move for at least fourteen hours when she feels her phone buzzing in her pocket.
Please, God, please don't let it be work.
But it's not, and when she reads the caller ID, she regrets her wish, for this is something far worse.
It's Maura's home phone.
Jane picks up on the second ring, "Hello?"
It's a kid's voice, terrified and babbling. She can't make out a single word they are saying.
Her hands are shaking and she's already grabbing her keys and sprinting to her car. She doesn't even remember if she closed her apartment door or not, "I'm on my way, just hold on. I'll be there."
She slaps the sirens on top of her car, though she knows nobody will be on the streets this late. She drives like her car is on fire-pushing 80 on surface streets- she gets there in five minutes flat.
She's sprinting up the stairs before she can even think about the fact that this will be the first time Jane's seen Maura in over a year.
She's still got the key to her house and she fumbles with her key ring, cursing when she drops them. Her heart is beating painfully in her chest when she pries the door open.
Instantly her gun is out of its holster. She steps into the house, and it's dark inside. She switches her gun light on, though she knows Maura's house with her eyes closed. She can hear something in the kitchen and she's walking quietly as she can, toe-heel, opening doors as she goes, but she knows where Maura is, she can feel it.
She makes it to the kitchen and she can hear the muffled sobs from behind the island and she rounds the corner and there's Maura. Her Maura. Her back is to Jane and her body is curled around a small child Jane has never seen before.
"Maur-" Jane doesn't even get the sentence out before the kid starts sprinting out of the kitchen and Maura whirls around. Jane puts up her arms at the last second and she can feel the frying pan collide with her bones. Her gun goes flying and clatters to the ground and there's ringing in her ears. Her eyes are still adjusting to the darkness and she scrabbles for the light.
But Maura gets to it first. Jane is blinded as it is turned on her this time, "Maura it's me," she pleads, bringing her shaking hands up. Fear has curled her scarred palms, and she tries her best to keep them flat, open, "it's Jane. Maura, please."
There's a beat, then the light above her starts to waver and she watches as the gun falls to her side.
"I-I'm going to stand up now, Maur," she says, trying to keep her voice steady, soothing.
When Maura doesn't respond, she gets to her knees and then her feet, placating hands above her head.
"Can you set the gun down, sweetheart?" the endearment rolls off her tongue before she can stop it. Maura doesn't respond. The light wavers by her thigh.
Jane takes a deep breath, "Maura, I'm going to take the gun from you and unload it, okay?" She inches forward, and takes Maura's right hand with her own and gently works her frozen fingers off the handle. Off the trigger.
Jane removes the magazine in record speed and puts the gun and the bullets on the kitchen counter. "There, see?" Jane whispers, "I'm unarmed now. I won't hurt you. It's Jane, Maura. It's just me."
"Jane?" It's the first word out of her mouth. Maura's knees collapse and Jane catches her on the way down. Maura flinches and Jane lets go quickly, leaving them both kneeling on the ground.
"It's me, I promise. Let me turn on the light-" She goes to stand but Maura grabs her wrist. Pain shoots through to her elbow and she swallows hard.
"No," Maura's voice is low, fierce but terrified, "no. He'll find us."
Fear grabs Jane's stomach. "Who will find you, Maur?"
"T-Theo's father."
Jane's head is spinning but she tries to keep her voice calm. "Who is Theo, Maur?"
Maura rubs her chest with shaking hands, she's trying to answer but her words aren't coming out and she looks at Jane with terror in her eyes, "I-I-c-ca-can't-"
"Easy easy, Maur, breathe, shh," Jane pushes down her own panic as her hand goes to Maura's back and she rubs light circles between her shoulder blades. Maura is crying now. Big, heaving sobs. Jane feels like her heart is tearing to see her in so much pain. "I'm here now, I promise. I won't let anything happen to you."
"Get off her!" There's a shriek and Jane looks up in time to see the outline of a small child come barreling into her at full force, knocking her to the side. Jane is stunned as the child kneels by Maura, small hands tugging at her shirt. "Mo?"
Maura seems to pull out of herself enough to wrap her arms around the child, pulling them in tight. The child tucks their arms and legs in tight, close to Maura's body. They sit there, rocking together.
Jane feels something uncomfortable squeeze in her stomach, because she knows that position. It's the one she uses when she's called in for cases of domestic violence and the kids are still in the house.
It's how she used to hold Tommy when her Pop went into a rage and it was too late to get him in the upstairs closet with Frankie.
"Maur, I'm gonna call the station and have them send some guys down, okay?" She pulls her phone out of her back pocket and gets to her feet, stepping away so as to not disturb them with her voice, but keeping a clear line of sight.
She dials Frankie's number first. She knows he's a light sleeper. It doesn't take him more than a few seconds to know something's wrong. There's a bit of surprise in his voice when she gives him Maura's address but he doesn't push, and for that she is grateful. He says he'll be there in twenty, and call in some uniforms on his way.
She looks back where Maura and the kid are huddled on the floor and she feels an intense loneliness wash over her for a brief moment.
She pushes that down too and goes to kneel beside them again. Maura is rocking back and forth, dry sobs wracking her chest, her breathing ragged. Jane had never seen her like this and she's terrified but she know she can't let that get in the way. She spots a tiny bare foot curled up against Maura's waist and swallows.
"Hi," she starts, keeping her voice gentle, "My name is Jane. What's your name?"
Jane spots a dark eye, peering over Maura's hunched shoulder.
"Are you Theo?" She guesses.
The kid stares, unblinking.
Jane continues, her words slow and soft, "You called me when Maura was upset. That was a very brave thing to do. I bet that was scary."
There's a slight dip and then the other eye and a hand appears along Maura's arm.
"It's going to be okay now, Theo. I'm Maura's friend. I am also a police officer so it's my job to protect you from bad people. Make sure they can't get you. Here," Jane pulls her badge out from under her shirt and sets it down next to Maura's leg.
There's a beat of silence before Theo speaks, "Mo's hurt. He came for me but he hurt her instead."
Jane feels ice in her veins, "Theo, are you injured?"
The tiny head shakes back and forth frantically, "No, no no, not me. You gotta help her."
Jane swallows, "Okay, okay, that's what I'm gonna do, but I need your help, yeah?"
Theo nods, still weary but deciding that they were on the same team for now at least, "Yeah."
"Maura?" Jane whispers.
"Mo." Theo echoes.
"Maura, it's Jane, I need you to listen to my voice, okay? Focus on my voice. Breathe with me, Maur. Like all those yoga classes you brought me along to. Ready? Breathe in..."
Jane makes an exaggerated inhale and Theo copies her.
"And out..."
Jane keeps talking her through it. The pattern "breathe in...two...three...four. And out...two...three...four...five...six...seven...eight" was one Maura had repeated to her many times when she woke up screaming in the middle of the night, hands curling in against the pale scars in her palms, Hoyt's laughter still ringing in her ears.
Theo's eyes widen around minute three, "you're doing it, Mo! I can feel it."
Jane can hear the staggered frantic wheezing turn into even breaths and something in her chest eases slightly.
"Maura you are safe here. You are in your kitchen right now. In your house. In Boston. I am with you. Theo is with you. The police are on their way."
"I'm here, Mo," Theo reiterates. Maura doesn't respond but the muscles in her shoulders loosen slightly and her arms loosen around Theo's waist.
"Maura can you count three things that you are touching?"
Maura tries, Jane can tell, she sees the muscles in her throat straining, and the look of distress pass over her eyes. She reaches out, cursing herself for going too quickly, but Theo gets there first.
"Here, Mo, I'm gonna count first. I'm gonna count a different count. Like how you taught me. Skaa-void, Loo-nate. Tricky-drum and Piss-fur. Trapeze-a-num, Trap-a-zoid, Capitals and Ham!"
Jane blinks but after the second round of 'Capitals and Ham,' Maura joins in, "Scaphoid, Lunate, Triquetrum, Pisiform, Trapezium, Trapezoid, Capitate, Hamate."
Jane can't believe she didn't recognize the words. Maura used to touch and name every bone in her hands before... She stops herself there.
It's a full ten rounds before Maura lets out a big breath.
"Maur?"
"Mo?"
Her eyes are clear when she blinks, "I-I apologize for scaring you. That was not my intention."
Jane laughs weakly, relief flooding through her, "Maura, I'm just so glad you're alive!"
She looks at Jane, and guilt begins to form on her face, "Jane-"
Jane cuts her off, she doesn't want to hear it now, she can't hear it now. "Shh, shh, Maur. Not right now. I just want to make sure you're okay, and that's all that matters."
Maura swallows and her mouth pulls into a grimace, "My med bag is-"
"I know." Jane's goes to stand but Maura grabs her hand, fear in her eyes.
Maura is never scared. She is unflappable, the ice queen, hell she touches dead bodies for a living.
But Jane can feel the terror emanating from her and she feels panic grip her.
Stay calm, dammit, what would Maura do?
"Okay, okay, we'll go together. C'mon," she gently wraps her arm around Maura's waist and helps her to her feet, "there we go."
Theo shuffles to Maura's other side and hides in her skirt.
Jane grabs her gun off the table and reloads it quickly, reholstering it. She can feel Theo grip Maura by the way Maura leans against her suddenly.
The walk to the bathroom is painful. Maura cringes at every creak in the floorboards and Theo jumps when she flinches and Jane's got her gun out so many times she decides to just give up on putting it back.
When they reach the bathroom, Jane goes to flick on the lights but Maura grips the back of her shirt tight, "Jane..."
Jane turns around slowly and gently loosens Maura's hand from her shirt and holds it firmly in her own. "Maura, listen to me, I cleared this room on my way in. There is no one in this house but you and me and-and Theo, I promise."
It takes her a few seconds but she nods, and Jane breathes a sigh of relief.
"Okay, okay I'm just gonna..." She fumbles for the switch, "there!"
Jane blinks, her eyes adjusting, and she can see Theo doing the same, but Maura covers her face with her arms, cringing away from the light.
She can see Theo more clearly now. A small boy, probably in the five to seven range, with skinny arms and legs. He's covered in dirt and his curly hair sticks out at all sorts of angles. She is all too familiar with the careful, weary way he holds his body but for now he appears unharmed.
Maura is pale, the hands pressed to her eyes are shaky and she's lost weight since Jane last saw her, she can see it in the hollow of her cheekbones. But even so clearly in pain, there's a strength that she had been missing the last month they were together, with Maura walking through their bedroom like a ghost. When she had been broken to just a shell of herself. Jane can feel the difference now.
"Jane-"
And she's back.
"Jane under the sink-"
"Right. Yes." Jane kneels down and reaches in the cabinet under the sink, "Sit down, okay?"
With Theo still clinging to her, Maura edges into the room and gingerly sits on the toilet cover. She's rocking slightly, still doubled over, her knees pressing together to try to take the edge off the pain.
Jane has the bag out and is undoing the zipper, "Okay, Maur, where does it hurt most?"
"My-my head. I think… I think I hit my head."
Jane fumbles for the penlight on her knees, "You hit your head? Did you black out?"
Maura rubs her eyes and groans, her hair like a sheet in front of her face, "I don't remember."
Jane pulls herself closer to Maura, and places a gentle hand on her elbow, "Okay, that's okay," she says, trying to make her voice soft, reassuring. "Just answer a few questions for me, standard procedure, you know all of these… Can you tell me what your full name is?"
Maura sighs, "Maura Dorthea Isles."
"Good, good," Jane twists the penlight on, "Can you tell me what month it is?"
"June. And yes, I know we're in Boston. I do not have post-traumatic amnesia, you just asked me what month it was and my name. I am, however, exhibiting signs of a grade three concussion if I did indeed lose consciousness. Nausea, headache, light sensitivity, tinnitus... dizziness, vision impairment... I will likely have to...CT or MRI…"
Maura suddenly wavers and slides off the seat. Jane flips up the lid just in time. She holds back her hair, whispering soothingly and rubbing her shoulders, and suddenly she's back, a year and a half ago, in this same position when Maura was having morning sickness.
But that's not now. As Jane smooths back her hair, she can see red scratches on her neck and bruises beginning to form. Even in the dim light she can see handprints on her arms and Jane fights the urge to be sick right alongside her.
Maura coughs and shudders and leans heavily against the frame.
"Theo?" Jane's voice is gentle. Theo, who has been watching this whole thing with huge terrified eyes in the corner with the toilet plunger, turns to Jane, his face wet with tears. Jane reaches out, but Theo cringes and scoots back into the corner. She feels a pang of guilt rush through her chest and she moves back, giving him space. "Theo, Theo sweetheart, Maura's gonna be okay, but I'm gonna need your help again. Could you do something for me? Can you fill up that cup on the sink with water?"
Theo gives her a distrustful look but he steps out of the corner, back pressed flat to the wall. The sink is high, but on tiptoes he manages to grab the cup and turn the faucet on. There's the high pitched wail of sirens from outside the house.
Maura groans again and moves to cover her ears with the noise. Theo makes a sound of distress and moves to turn the water off, knocking over the cup in the process. He squeaks and dives under the sink, putting his back against the wall and curling his arms and legs like armor in front of his body.
Jane jumps to her feet, swearing under her breath, and turns the water off. She grabs the cup with the remaining water and places it upright it next to Maura.
"Theo?" Theo jumps at the sound of Jane's voice and starts rocking back and forth, "Theo, I promise I'm not gonna hurt you..."
"Mo," he whimpers, "Mo, help me."
And there's Maura, again, moving slowly across the floor, still covering her eyes to kneel next to Theo, "Shh, I'm here, I'm here."
Theo uncurls and wraps his body around her and she shifts so she can hold him in her lap and rub his back.
And Jane feels shut out again like the lonely third wheel. She twists her hands together, trying to stem the childish feeling of being left out, seeing a vision of the family she almost had, but this time she's not in the picture.
Her thoughts are interrupted by banging on the front door.
Maura and Theo both look up, twin looks of terror on their faces. Theo pulls himself into an even tighter ball and Maura's eyes bore into Jane with a look of desperate trust, protect us.
Jane swallows hard, "It's okay, I promise, it's Frankie. He called in reinforcements and this should be them..." But her hand is still reaching for her gunbelt.
They can hear a crash as Maura's door is kicked in and heavy footsteps. Jane's on her feet with her gun in her hand and she's stepping in front of Maura and Theo. She briefly regrets not having her kevlar vest in case she's wrong, but that's a fleeting thought.
The boots are getting louder and she reminds herself that this is how she cleared the house when she came in, that this is her team.
All the same, her gun swings up when the bathroom door busts open and she's yelling, "Don't shoot! I am an officer of the law and I have two civilians with me. Don't shoot- Don't shoot!"
"Janie, Jesus! Put the gun down, it's me, Janie, it's Frankie." Frankie steps in the room, his hands up.
Jane breathes out and her shoulders relax a bit. She returns her gun to the holster. "Hey, Frankie," she says weakly. "Thanks for coming."
Frankie's smile is tight, worried, "Of course, I came's soon as you called." His eyes flick down to Maura and they widen when he sees Theo. "What's going on?"
Jane kneels down again, and gently squeezes Maura's shoulder, letting her know she's there. Maura's head is in her knees again and Jane speaks quietly for her "Maura's got a concussion, and it was trauma-related. We need a med unit and uniforms outside of her house."
Frankie nods, "The ambulance got here before us, I'll tell the guys to send a stretcher when they clear the house. We already got two squad cars parked there for the night."
Jane feels an overwhelming surge of relief, and she hopes someday he'll understand just how much she appreciates him, "Thanks, Frankie."
He seems taken aback but then he smiles, "Always, Janie." He moves out of the room.
"Maura?"
"Yes Jane?" She's barely audible, the pain in her head consuming her.
"You ready to go?"
The trip to the hospital moves by in a whirlwind. The paramedics move Maura onto a stretcher. Theo shrieks when they have to separate and Jane has to hold on to him, shaking and crying, while they get her strapped into the gurney. Theo and Jane ride together in the back. He holds Maura's hand with the two of his and Jane watches Maura gently running a thumb over his little fingers. Maura's face is pinched, it's clear she's disoriented, in pain, but even then her hand is gentle, reassuring.
When they get to the ambulance bay, Maura is wheeled into a room and the doctor tells Jane and Theo they can't follow.
Jane is distraught but Theo is inconsolable. Jane tries everything she knows. Sitting on the chairs, walking around the hallways, talking with him, taking a trip to the vending machine, giving him her keys, her phone, everything. He follows her after he discovers he can't find Maura but she can tell he's miserable and terrified. Finally, after an hour of pacing Jane opens her arms and after several minutes of staring, Theo concedes and crawls into her lap, hiding his head into her shoulder. He starts to sob, tiny shoulders shaking and her hand moves to his back.
"I know, I know… She's gonna be okay… Shh, shh… I miss her too."
That's how the doctor finds them, at 4 am, both in states of fretful sleep.
"Ms. Rizzoli?"
Jane starts awake, "Yes? 'S me- That's me."
She feels Theo stir on her chest and attempts to slow her breathing. She moves her arm to try to block him from the fluorescent lighting. "Maura-" she shakes her head, trying to blink herself into cognition, "How is she?"
The doctor smiles kindly, "She's going to be okay. There is no bleeding in her brain. She has a concussion, and we'll be keeping her here for a few more hours and monitoring her sleep, but she'll be ready to go tomorrow."
Jane feels herself go weak with relief and she's glad she's already sitting down. "Thank you, Doctor,"
The doctor nods, tucking a short piece of hair behind her ear, "There's a police officer stationed outside her door and they'll take her statement when she wakes up. You have no need to worry, I have no doubt they will apprehend the man that did this."
Jane nods. She'll make sure of it.
"If you need anything, you can ask for Dr Lee at the nurses station." She turns to leave, "Your wife is a strong woman, Ms Rizzoli, you and your son are very lucky."
By the time Jane can put together enough brain to realize what she said, the doctor is already long gone. She rolls it around in her brain until the sun comes up and she falls back into the chair, the result of being awake for over 48 hours finally taking its toll. She sleeps finally, lulled by Theo's tiny heartbeat against her chest.